1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to searching software and related applications. Specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to search engines that search two and three dimensional data and data derived from two and three dimensional data or that utilize this data as search parameters.
2. Background
Search engines are applications that are utilized to search through databases to find information stored therein that is specified by input parameters or related to the specified input parameters. A common use of search engines is to search through a compilation of data on a network such as links and text found on web pages. A user specifies a keyword of interest to the user. The search engine iterates through the entries in the compiled database of network information to find matches for the input key word. The search engine compiles the results of the search for display to the user. The results may be displayed in a list that includes a link or location of the found information.
The parameters that a search engine may utilize are ASCII characters and strings of ASCII characters. The search engine compares the character or string with characters or strings in the database. Matches or near matches are returned and prepared for display to the user.
The database utilized by a search engine is populated by manual entry of data or by a ‘crawling’ process. The crawling process traverses a network and compiles information about web pages on a network. The crawling process compiles text information about each web page. The compiled information is stored in the database to be searched by a user.